By Professor Donald Weaver, University of Toronto — The Conversation Canada — 20 September 2020
More than half of patients with dementia also suffer from depression. If depression remains untreated, the associated memory and cognitive problems worsen. Conversely, a significant history of depression seems to be a risk factor for dementia. People with a past history of depression have double the risk of developing dementia, even if the depression occurred more than a decade before the onset of dementia.
In the age of COVID-19, these connections become even more stark. If loneliness and isolation are already noted risk factors for both depression and dementia, then the lockdowns preventing family and caregivers from interacting with loved ones in long-term care have served to hasten the decline. The key difference: there are no effective therapies for dementia, whereas there are potentially effective agents for depression. Efforts should always be made to detect and treat depression, thereby eliminating one of the faces of this two-faced dementia-depression coin.